at this time of year she is probably feeding pups so will be very active and determined.

keep the trap in good order and post your sniper is the best bet although tracking in daylight to find her preferred routes,lay ups and perhaps even find her home can help work out where is a good spot to lie in wait if she has rumbled the current sniper positions .

it is a bit of extra work but high seats that overlooks known haunts(the hen run for example) can add to the potential safe angles of fire.foxes are clever and will avoid danger zones in favour of unshootable places .
im assuming rifle and night site rather than shotgun for the high seats as with a shottie the extra work does not give anywhere near as much added advantage as with a longer range weapon.
even with a shotgun the high seat helps with reducing scent ,increasing the areas that can be seen and giving extra safe angles of fire

I am beginning to regret keeping chickens! I have had no fox attacks since the beginning of May, and have had a (dead) chicken tied to the treadle of the trap for a good fortnight. No fox. No sign of fox.

On Wednesday I thought it was safe to buy new chickens. Trap triggered Wednesday evening, but no catch. Today, I have lost six. I have no idea how. None. I know for definite they were shut in last night, because we checked them after the door had shut. They don't get let out till about 8am. Which I would have thought was late enough. Both the laying birds (why does it always get the layers?!) had laid before being eaten.

The only possibilities I can think of is that the fox was about between 8 and midday. Or that it got in through the nest box, but I'd have expects the eggs to be broken in that case.

I can't really think of anything else to do. Obviously, I will secure the nest box with something. I could move the chicken house down closer to the house, so I can keep more of an eye on things, but I couldn't pen them down here. I can't keep replacing chickens indefinitely!

I don't mind loosing the odd bird. A fox is worthy opponent. I'm just fed up of loosing so many. They've had thirty birds since we moved here in October.

I don't think I want to keep chickens in a pen. I suppose I could just let them out when I'm around, but they'd be in all the time in the winter. I'm going to move the house down here, I think. I haven't seen a fox (except once, in the trap) I suppose I could get a dog.

Jenna's school friends have been discussing fox culling with their parents, as she is devising methods of protection and dispatch in the playground. I blame Wallace and Grommit! It all seems to involve alarms and lasers and traps!!

When we had a few hens we only let them out when we were around. Even then and even with a dog we still had the odd fox try their luck. To be brutal if you don't let hens out at all they will be happier than being let out some times and shut in the next. I don't mean 'enriched cage' shut in, but a large fenced movable run.

Having spent a fair bit of time outdoors in suburban gardens and the country side I see foxes at all times and often close by. I have met someone who didn't have any trouble with free-ranging hens but he did stalk the countryside with a shotgun many evenings and he did have a few Ridgebacks running about.